When a universal serial bus (“USB”) disk drive is plugged into a Microsoft Windows™ computer, a standard procedure is utilized by the operating system to make the disk drive usable. The operating system will use the disk drive's identifiers to search for a suitable device driver and records this setting in its registry. For example, the operating system queries the disk drive for its vendor identifier (VID), product identifier (PID), serial number, and capabilities. Then, the operating system looks up which driver to use in its registry database. If it finds an entry for the device, then it loads the device driver. If it does not find an entry for the device, it means this is the first time this particular disk drive has been plugged into the host computer. Then, the operating system searches for a suitable device driver. If it finds a usable driver, it records the driver's information in the registry so it does not have to search again the next time. Once the driver has been found and loaded, the disk drive is usable.
Sometimes, however, it may be necessary to use two different device drivers for the same device at different times. For example, since the operating system remembers which drivers it selects for a particular device, this is usually accomplished by changing the device's PID or serial number. Unfortunately, this causes complications since changing the device's PID or serial number usually confuses other applications running on the computer that assume a particular device's identifiers remain constant. Changing any of the device's information will lead the operating system to think the disk drive is a different one and therefore associate the drive with a different registry key. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide methods and systems for improving the loading of different device drivers.